Ramblings from my own recent job search

Having been on both sides of the interview table for Talent Leadership roles recently, I thought I’d share some of my own personal views and observations of what seems to have worked. This is likely not novel or unique, and possibly not interesting, but I’ve got a lot of time to kill in an airport so here it is anyway.

1. Your network is your strongest asset.?

I don’t mean a network cultivated through being a LinkedIn Top Voice with a lot of people you’ve not met. I’m talking about those relationships you’ve developed within VCs, leadership teams and stakeholders you’ve built trust with in previous roles, the countless talent specialists who have worked for, with or above you. Treat your working relationships as the possible door-opener for your next role, and it’ll deliver in spades.

2. A world without data isn’t a world I want to live in.?

I’m a massive data nerd, and I get a perverse pleasure from the many hours spent manually collating and interpreting hiring data (much to the horror of my team at Wayve when I showed them how it’s done in my handover…)

Approach interviewing with a quantitative mindset. A hypothetical question that starts with ‘how would you’ isn’t hypothetical, and neither should your response be. We find the relevant data, we analyse that data, we build our approach to whatever this problem is accordingly. This is still in the realms of hypothetical, so at this point you pull in a previous real world example that relates to this, to back up your hypothesis.

3. Doctors make the worst patients (insert Talent Specialist and Interviewee accordingly).?

This is the world we live in, of course we know exactly how to nail an interview. False. Incorrect. Do not pass go. I’m completely guilty of this myself, and the answer is to work with an expert.?

I’m incredibly fortunate to have secured my previous two roles with the help of the excellent Mark Shortall from Re:work and Kristian James from Hawkwood. Both have provided me with invaluable advice and guidance, and have provided that ‘step back’ approach to how I’m looking at an interview problem.?

4. A case study is a work problem, approach it as such.?

Imagine the scenario: your CEO / Leadership team have asked you to put forward a proposal for a massive six month transformation project that is critical for the business. I guarantee not one person would decide that the way to approach this problem is an 8 slide deck to try to give all of the information in real-time, in 30-40mins + Q&A, to a large group of people.?

You’d spend time gathering requirements, you’d build out a comprehensive and detailed document with data, trade offs, things to consider, different options of approach, cost analysis, risk factors etc etc. So why would you approach this interview version any different. Don’t take the brief as gospel, challenge and gather requirements. Build out a detailed document first (which incidentally, makes the subsequent slide creation so much easier), send it to all the participants as a pre/post read, and keep your presentation content to the key talking points.?

5. Don’t prepare.

Ok, this is both controversial and facetious (to an extent). I also despised revising as a student, so perhaps it’s just a personality flaw on my end.?

What I mean is, don’t over-prepare for behavioural interviews by planning out your answers in advance for what you might be asked. You’ve worked in Talent for x years, chances are you’re a pretty good storyteller. That’s your skill, let it show at interview. I’ve sat across the table from so many candidates who are trying to work their prepared examples into a question where it’s not actually that relevant.?

Prepare for case studies, obviously. Do your research on the company, naturally. Understand the role and why you’re interested, goes without saying. Don’t write down 25 answers to pre assumed questions generated by ChatGPT and then fret when the one you get asked is slightly different, but you go with what you’ve got. The best way to ‘prepare’ in this scenario - tell some friends who work in completely different sectors the best ‘stories’ from your experience, the ones that you’re proud of / were challenging / the usual criteria. If they understood, followed along and didn’t find it mind-numbingly dull, you’re probably doing OK.?

You’ll notice at no point during this rambling do I mention the benefit of brevity as a candidate, as that would be a level of hypocrisy unheard of in this Tolstoy-esque post (and yes, pun intended for those who spotted the ‘not novel’ at the start)?

I’m off to Asia, see you all back on LinkedIn in the summer